Can I run this amazing monitor with my MacBook Pro? (1 Viewer)

[Clinton McClure]

It occurs to me that if you rotated the central monitor to portrait position, you'd still have a (4920 x 1080) area that stretches all the way from the far left, to the far right. But now the center would be 1920 pixels tall – a possible gain for Web browsing and word processing use.

Left monitor is schedule board for support technicians and work orders, parts, etc..., center is usually a spreadsheet, and right is email. It works perfect for me.

 

[JohnRice]

Any update Ron?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Any update Ron?

Good Morning, John!

Thanks for asking

This monitor is everything I had hoped for. From the quality of the graphics to the amount of extra desktop space with no bezels -- I am spending more time at my desk than I ever have before. The reason being I love using this monitor.

I will admit that there is a lot of neck strain. I was getting it when I had previously been using a 55" TV as a monitor and I had to constantly look upward. Now I have to look from side to side.

Samsung really hit it out of the ballpark with this monitor. It's a real champ. Of course, no problems because I spent the extra $150 on a warranty. Always works that way.

Hey John, whilst I have you here, Sir...

Giving my two old (actually new) 27" monitors to my brother for his Macbook Pro.

Can they be run directly with two USB-C cables (non-lightning), one running from each monitor to both ports on the MBP? No dock. Nothing in-between. Or, do they need lightning cable to achieve a proper resolution?

So two standard USB-C cables from each monitor to the MBP. Will it work?

 

[JohnRice]

Ron, to the best of my knowledge, as long as the MacBook can drive those monitors, yes that should work. USB-C to DisplayPort or hdmi cables. I don't know if it has an hdmi output, but if it does I'd use it for one monitor, simply to free up a Thunderbolt/USB port. Or, of course, a TB3 dock.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ron, to the best of my knowledge, as long as the MacBook can drive those monitors, yes that should work. USB-C to DisplayPort or hdmi cables. I don't know if it has an hdmi output, but if it does I'd use it for one monitor, simply to free up a Thunderbolt/USB port. Or, of course, a TB3 dock.

John, I THINK the monitors have USB-C connections so I am assuming I won't need any adapters

 

[JohnRice]

John, I THINK the monitors have USB-C connections so I am assuming I won't need any adapters

Could be, but I'm not sure I've ever seen that. Computer monitors I've seen have all had DP and hdmi connections. The adapter cables are cheap, usually under $20.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Could be, but I'm not sure I've ever seen that. Computer monitors I've seen have all had DP and hdmi connections. The adapter cables are cheap, usually under $20.

Just checked. The monitors do have USB-C output

 

[JohnRice]

There ya go.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I never heard of this company. I found them after doing a detailed search (for over 30 minutes) on retailers who were selling this Samsung monitor. The store is nearly an hour away which is another reason I knew nothing about them.

However, when I got to the store there was a line of people waiting to get in for the opening. When I walked inside, I was very impressed to see that it was quite a large store with an amazing amount of product. If and when this pandemic is over, I want to go back up there and spend an hour walking around the store. Seems like a candy store for computer nerds like us.

I'm assuming you came up to the store outside of Paterson. When I worked in Teaneck & Hackensack years ago I used to pass right by that exit on the way home, at least once every couple of weeks I would stop in and kill an hour or so wandering through the place. At the time they had a great selection of blank media, cables, and accessories you didn't know you needed until you saw them. Went back for the first time in a couple of years in July to pick up an iPad for my son and the store was the same - I wish it was more comfortable shopping experience as I would have liked to spend some time in there again, but hopefully that returns soon.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I'm assuming you came up to the store outside of Paterson. When I worked in Teaneck & Hackensack years ago I used to pass right by that exit on the way home, at least once every couple of weeks I would stop in and kill an hour or so wandering through the place. At the time they had a great selection of blank media, cables, and accessories you didn't know you needed until you saw them. Went back for the first time in a couple of years in July to pick up an iPad for my son and the store was the same - I wish it was more comfortable shopping experience as I would have liked to spend some time in there again, but hopefully that returns soon.

Peter, that's exactly where I went.

I never even heard of the store before. As I previously mentioned, NOBODY had this monitor in stock. Not BestBuy, Amazon or B&H.

It was a quick "in" and "out" so I barely got to see anything. I just noticed it was a large warehouse. I would have loved to spend some time shopping in there especially considering the nearly hour ride it took to get there.

 

[JohnRice]

BTW Ron, today I finally hooked up the TP3Plus dock to my computer at work using THIS CABLE. It's one of the most reasonably priced 2M cables with full TB3 capabilities that I found. I'm running dual monitors with the same total desktop as your new monitor. It has confirmed full speed 40Gb/s and the two monitors are working fine. Of course, I won't be connecting/disconnecting it like you would, so who knows about the longevity of the connectors. Still, less than 1/2 the price of the Apple one.

 

[Mark-P]

While I don’t have the resources that Ron does for that very expensive piece of hardware, I did just get a much cheaper alternative.
See on Amazon.
I find it works pretty well with a Mac mini for watching programs in their correct ratio. I tried it with Apple TV 4K box but that was a disaster as that unit won‘t support the 21:9 aspect ratio and shows everything stretched no matter what resolution you choose. The Mac mini however works like a charm and scales everything to fit perfectly. ATV, Prime Video and Netflix are perfectly suited because they do not hardcode black bars and whether 16x9, 1.85:1, 2.00:1, 2.35:1 or 2.55:1, each program is scaled to fit the maximum area without cropping! However Vudu and Disney+ DO hardcode black bars, so that all their programs that are wider than 16X9 are windowboxed. Boo-hiss...

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Hi Mark!

That's a nice monitor. Took a look over the specs and Amazon reviewers are calling it an oustanding value.

You mentioned using it with Apple TV 4k was a disaster, but I take it you can use the Apple TV app that comes with Mac OS X and it displays okay?

 

[Mark-P]

Hi Mark!

That's a nice monitor. Took a look over the specs and Amazon reviewers are calling it an oustanding value.

You mentioned using it with Apple TV 4k was a disaster, but I take it you can use the Apple TV app that comes with Mac OS X and it displays okay?

Yes. The Apple TV app on the Mac mini is great. It scales perfectly to fit whatever aspect ratio the program is in to fit the most space without cropping any image. It also took me a while to figure out how turn on HDR on Mac OS, but once I did that the monitor showed HDR engaged. So the TV app, Netflix and Prime Video are all great on the Mac OS. Vudu and Disney+ not so much because they are restricted to a 16X9 ratio only. I need to try a few more streaming services to see how they fare.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yes. The Apple TV app on the Mac mini is great. It scales perfectly to fit whatever aspect ratio the program is in to fit the most space without cropping any image. It also took me a while to figure out how turn on HDR on Mac OS, but once I did that the monitor showed HDR engaged. So the TV app, Netflix and Prime Video are all great on the Mac OS. Vudu and Disney+ not so much because they are restricted to a 16X9 ratio only. I need to try a few more streaming services to see how they fare.

For Disney+ and Vudu, maybe try streaming from a web browser instead? No idea if you'd get 4K and/or HDR that way though...

_Man_

 

[JohnRice]

My guess on Vudu and Disney+ is that every image is (stupidly) formatted to the full 16x9 image with black bars, where the others have no actual black bars, which just get inserted by default to fill the available space. I doubt there's any "fix" to that. At least not a simple one. Just like when I transcode video for my video server. I delete the black bars to achieve a result that's the same as what works correctly for Mark.

 

[Mark-P]

My guess on Vudu and Disney+ is that every image is (stupidly) formatted to the full 16x9 image with black bars, where the others have no actual black bars, which just get inserted by default to fill the available space. I doubt there's any "fix" to that. At least not a simple one. Just like when I transcode video for my video server. I delete the black bars to achieve a result that's the same as what works correctly for Mark.

Yeah, I've had more time to try a few more streaming services and none of them will work for 21:9 display. These include Hulu, FandangoNow, Googleplay, Youtube. The only one that partially worked is HBOMax as all their 2.35:1 movies displayed correctly, but 1.85 and 2.00:1 would not and were windowboxed.

The reason AppleTV, Netflix and Amazon are so good by not encoding black bars, is because these companies know that their content will be viewed on devices with non-standard aspect ratios such as phones and tablets and that hardcoding black bars to make everything 16X9 limits the ability to show images correctly. And they also have a lot of content that they have created in 2.00:1 and 2.35:1 that they want displayed correctly.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Anything with hardcoded letterbox bars is most likely sourced from the home video master, since the physical media specs for BD and UHD discs require content to be presented within a 16x9 container.

 

[DaveF]

FWIW, a friend just got the the LG 38WN95C for his 16" MBP. Loves it. He's a pro developer, full time WFH, says it's crucial for getting through the next year.

LG 38" UltraWide Curved Monitor - 38WN95C-W | LG USA

Discover the LG 38" UltraWide Curved Monitor that features G-SYNC® Compatibility and QHD+ Nano IPS Display. Find reviews, specs, and more for 38WN95C-W.

www.lg.com

 

[Dave Upton]

FWIW, a friend just got the the LG 38WN95C for his 16" MBP. Loves it. He's a pro developer, full time WFH, says it's crucial for getting through the next year.

LG 38" UltraWide Curved Monitor - 38WN95C-W | LG USA

Discover the LG 38" UltraWide Curved Monitor that features G-SYNC® Compatibility and QHD+ Nano IPS Display. Find reviews, specs, and more for 38WN95C-W.

www.lg.com

These ultrawides have absurd prices IMO.